Need To Talk
by mimeTEC
Summary: One shot, Jackie and Hyde fic. Hyde is married to Sam and Eric has yet to go to Africa. Jackie wants to talk.


Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Yea yea everyone else has a disclaimer up like this too, because if I was one of the real That 70's Show writers, I would have Hyde and Jackie get back together.

Setting : 8th season. Hyde is married to Sam. Eric's trip to Africa is postponed for an episode.

* * *

"Hey Donna?"

"Yea Jackie?"

"Can you help me with something?"

"Depends on what it is."

Jackie had just walked into the Forman's kitchen to find Donna and Eric sitting at the table eating brownies. She had a proposition for the both of them.

"Yea, if you want Donna to help you honor Satan, I think she'll pass." Eric joked trying to burn Jackie but Jackie continued to talk with only Donna, knowing that Donna can make Eric go along with anything.

"Well." Jackie looked down at the table instead of at Donna, "I need to talk to Steven." She practically whispered. Donna and Eric heard it though and both were startled.

"Jackie. I don't think…" Donna started but Jackie cut her off by looking up at her with confidence,

"I need to Donna. I need him to know a few things. I need to relieve some of this pressure off of my heart." Donna looked in her friend's face and saw a determination that surpassed any other she had ever seen.

"Okay."

It was not Donna who said this; it was Eric who stood up volunteering his services to Jackie. Donna looked shocked at his actions for a second and then stood up a moment later,

"Tell us your plan."

* * *

A day later, Eric and Donna started putting the plan in effect. Donna was to distract Sam with a trip to the mall, which Hyde definitely would not want to attend. While Eric took Kelso and Fez to the Water Park, knowing full well that Hyde wouldn't be caught dead in a bathing suit and wouldn't want to come along. Jackie and Donna had also talked to Kitty, and informed her of the plan, which she herself would be a part of, as to make sure that the Forman house was empty for a good hour or two.

Donna and Eric seemed the perfect actors; Hyde didn't notice a thing. He just remained sitting on the living room couch as everyone around him went off to start his or her entertaining day, as he turned on the television.

* * *

Hyde had been watching Charlie's Angels for about twenty minutes of undisturbed silence, when the front door opened. He didn't look up, expecting it to be Red or Kitty, but it was Jackie. She stood there for a second just looking at him watching TV without a break in his stare, until she slowly closed the front door behind her and leaned against it. The door clicked into its place and that's when Hyde glanced towards it. He might have had a shocked look in his eye at seeing that it was Jackie who had intruded on his alone time, but his sunglasses blocked it.

"What are you doing here?" The question was not really harsh but it definitely was not very welcoming. Jackie took a few steps forward towards the couch. Hyde glared at her and watched as her confidence fled her face for a second before being regained. And then she spoke,

"I want to talk to you." She said slightly rushing the sentence with an urgent tone. Hyde was about to spout off a sarcastic remark, when Jackie raised both her hands slightly as she stood in between him and the TV, "Please. I will talk and will you just listen to what I have to say. It will take an hour at most." She pleaded with him to give her attention.

He wanted to snap back with an observation about how she talks constantly without interruption all the time about useless things, why should this be any different, but he kept his mouth shut because he had never seen Jackie look so imploring. She gave him a slight smile for his silence and turned to shut the TV off and walked across the room and sat down in Red's green chair.

"I want to tell you some things," She looked at her hands, "That I think you deserve to know."

Hyde was giving her his full attention, he was really curious as to what Jackie had to say to him in such a calm fashion. The last time they had conversed it had been a heated argument based on why he had married Sam in the first place.

"I want to start by saying that I never cheated on you. Michael tried to…but we never did, because I love you." She had a pitiful start, and Jackie thought on how she had rehearsed this talk in her head, but it came up as a blank. Hyde was so tempted to argue with her but she continued before he could say anything.

With a slight ironic smile Jackie spoke again,

"I knew, even when we first started, that if our relationship went farther than a summer fling, that you would not allow yourself to love me. And when we became boyfriend and girlfriend, I thought," Jackie takes a deep breath and looks up to Hyde, "I thought I had enough love for the both of us."

Her eyes start to fill with tears and she tries hard to keep them from falling.

"But I knew that no matter how much faith I had in a relationship, if it wasn't meant to last," Jackie's head falls to look at her lap as one tear makes its way down her cheek, "It just wasn't meant to last." She whispered downward.

Hyde took off his sunglasses slowly; revealing his own sorrow filled eyes looking at the girl sitting in front of him. He did not utter a sound but waited until Jackie spoke again.

Jackie wiped the spare tear away and gracefully showed her face, "I want to run into your arms right now, and have you hug me back." She looks to the side, "But I know you won't." She slowly looks towards Hyde again, "And that's what kills me the most, that I can feel so strongly about something, when you feel nothing." She accused in her regained composure. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Jackie stood up still looking at him in a sad quiet way.

"It's funny how close you seem to be right now, but I can feel the distance with each breath." Jackie took a few steps towards the kitchen door, "I wish you could feel the love I have for you, then maybe," She glanced back at him, "You could love yourself."

Another tear escaped her façade of calm, and the kitchen door swung open to show a scantily clad Sam holding a glass of iced tea. Hyde's vision was solely on Jackie, his mouth opened in awe of how mature she had just spoken, and how she knew him so well even though he had kept himself so guarded. His peaceful loving staring contest with Jackie was broken by an annoying sound,

"Oh is little Jackie crying!" Sam giggled, Jackie's attention broke from Hyde to look at Sam, "Boo Hoo! Hyde doesn't love me!" Sam mocked Jackie pretending to rub tears out of her eyes.

Hyde stood up immediately, it was a natural reflex to try and protect her, he thought Jackie needed his help, and he wasn't going to sit around and let Sam jeer her after she had just spoke with all her heart. But instead of what he was expecting from Jackie, she curled up her lip into a smirk, still looking into Sam's eyes.

"Yea. But he doesn't love you either." Jackie scoffed, "And he never will." She grinned at Sam, showing off her perfect teeth, in a menacing smile.

"Oh please." Sam tried to brush Jackie off and walked to the side of Hyde.

But Jackie did not falter, she looked directly at Hyde and said,

"Steven Hyde doesn't love anyone," Jackie's focus now became Sam, "least of all you." With that Jackie gave Hyde one last nod and made her subtle exit through the kitchen.


End file.
